Method of making colored wire



METHOD OF MAKING COLORED WIRE Leonard T. Hurat, Cleveland, and Edward P.Presby, Garfield Heights, Ohio, assignors to United States SteelCorporation, a corporation of New Jersey No Drawing. Application January6, 1956 Serial No. 557,628 10 4 Claims. (Cl. 29-407) This inventionrelates to a method of making colored wire and more particularly formaking steel wire which is colored for identification purposes. Thereare many different types of wire which is used for many purposes. Whenimproperly identified wire is used for the wrong purpose it does notfunction satisfactorily. For that reason it is desired to mark the wireso that it can be identified as to grade and type. This is most commonlydone by attaching a tag to the wire or painting a portion thereof. Inmany instances the paint comes off or the painted portion is removedbefore the whole coil is utilized. The tag is often lost.

It is therefore an object of our invention to provide a method ofcoloring wire wherein the color adheres tightly to the wire.

Another object is to provide such a method in which the coloring isapplied while a rod is being made into wire.

These and other objects will be more apparent after referring to thefollowing specification.

In carrying out our invention scale and foreign material is removed fromthe rod. A base coating is then applied 35 to the rod. This may be doneby dipping a coil of rod into a water solution of hydrated lime. Thelime concentration is generally between 4 and 10% by weight and thenumber of lime dips may vary. Generally from 1 to 12 dips are used.After each dip the rod with the lime coating thereon is dried either inair or by flash baking. When air drying the lime solution should beheated to a temperature of approximately 200. Other standard basecoatings such as carbonates,.phosphates, borates, silicates, titaniumdioxide, chromates and magnesium oxide may be used in place of the lime.Each of the above steps are conventional in the wire drawing art. Afterthe lime coating is dried the rod with the coating thereon is dippedinto a tub containing a water solution of a water soluble dye. Any watersoluble dye functions for the desired purpose. Some dyes actually usedinclude Eosine l, Calcocid Alizarine Green CGEX, Calcomine Sky Blue FFEx. Cone, Alizarine Cyanine Green Base, Calcophen Red Y, each of whichis manufactured by American Cyanamid Company and Monastral Fast GreenGWD, Pontacyl Green NV Extra, Du Pont Naphthol Green B Extra conc. 125%,each of which is manufactured by E. I. du Pont Company. Theconcentration of the dye in the water may vary and depends on the typeof dye and the number of times the coil is to be dipped into thesolution. Increasing the number of dips increases the vividness of thecolor on the drawn wire and also increases the coverage. Increasing theconcentration of the coloring solution improves the vividness of thecolor. By way of example, the solution may consist of one pound of dyeto 50 gallons of water. The rod is atent 0 "2,900,710 Patented Aug. 25,1959 dried between each dip in the coloring solution, preferably bypermitting it to stand in the air. To increase the speed of drying thecoloring solution is maintained at a temperature between 160 and 200 F.but the solution can be applied at a lower temperature if desired. Afterthe last dip the coil is preferably flash baked for five minutes at atemperature of 450 F. to make sure that the coatings are thoroughlydried. The rod with the lime coating and coloring thereon is then drawninto wire in multiple passes in the usual manner. A dry lubricant isused and the color intensity on the drawn wire improves as lubricantsWith higher titre values are used. Titre is a term used in the wiredrawing art to indicate the solidifying point of the fatty acid which isreacted with a particular base to compound the lubricant. Large draftingreductions give the color a brighter luster than smaller reductions.Multiple drafting spreads the coloring thickness more evenly but alsothins it out. This method of applying coating is inexpensive and fitswell into the usual operations of wire drawing. The coating so producedis uniform and suitable for further wire drawing or. as a lubricatingfilm in producing cold headed or screw stock products.

While one embodiment of our invention has been shown and described itwill be apparent that other adaptations and modifications may be madewithout departing from the scope of the following claims.

We claim:

1. The method of making colored wire comprising providing a rod,cleaning the rod, applying a wire drawing base coating to the surface ofthe rod, applying a solution of a water soluble dye to the rod with thebase coating thereon, drying the rod with the dye thereon, and thendrawing the rod to wire of the desired diameter.

2. The method of making colored wire comprising providing a rod,cleaning the rod, applying a water solution of hydrated lime to thesurface of the rod, drying the rod with the lime thereon, applying asolution of a water soluble dye to the rod with the lime thereon, dryingthe rod with the lime and dye thereon, and then drawing the rod to wireof the desired diameter.

3. The method of making colored wire comprising providing a coil of rod,removing scale and foreign material from the surface of the rod, dippingthe coil into a water solution of hydrated lime, then drying the coilsof rod, dipping the dried coil into a water solution of a water solubledye, drying the coil of rod with the lime and dye thereon, and thendrawing the rod to wire of the desired diameter.

4. The method of making colored wire comprising providing a rod,cleaning the rod, applying a wire drawing base coating of a material ofthe class consisting of hydrated lime, carbonates, phosphates, borates,silicates, titanium dioxide, chromates and magnesium oxide to thesurface of the rod, drying the rod with the base coating thereon,applying a solution of a water soluble dye to the rod with the basecoating thereon, drying the rod with the base coating and dye thereon,and then drawing the rod to wire of the desired diameter.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,712,348 Howe May 7, 1929 1,932,454 Franks Oct. 31, 1933 2,546,447Ham's Mar. 27, 1951

